Answers

Best Answer: Millions of hectares of cropland in the industrial world have been paved over for roads and parking lots. Each U.S. car, for example, requires on average 0.07 hectares (0.18 acres) of paved land for roads and parking space. For every five cars added to the U.S. fleet, an area the size of a football field is covered with asphalt. More often than not, cropland is paved simply because the flat, well-drained soils that are well suited for farming are also ideal for building roads. Once paved, land is not easily reclaimed. As environmentalist Rupert Cutler once noted, “Asphalt is the land’s last crop.”

The United States, with its 214 million motor vehicles, has paved 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) of roads, enough to circle the Earth at the equator 157 times. In addition to roads, cars require parking space. Imagine a parking lot for 214 million cars and trucks. If that is too difficult, try visualizing a parking lot for 1,000 cars and then imagine what 214,000 of these would look like.

However we visualize it, the U.S. area devoted to roads and parking lots covers an estimated 16 million hectares (61,000 square miles), an expanse approaching the size of the 21 million hectares that U.S. farmers planted in wheat last year. But this paving of land in industrial countries is slowing as countries approach automobile saturation. In the United States, there are three vehicles for every four people. In Western Europe and Japan, there is typically one for every two people.

At 61,000 square miles, that is bigger than the state of Georgia but smaller than Wisconsin. If you took all the paved area and made it into it's own state, it would rank 24th in area. Maine is ranked 39th at 35,385 square miles.

U.S. area devoted to roads and parking lots covers an estimated 16 million hectares (39 million acres), almost as much as the 20 million hectares that U.S. farmers plant in wheat. But this paving of land in industrial countries is slowing as countries approach automobile saturation. In the United States, there is nearly one vehicle for every person. In Western Europe and Japan, there is typically one for every two people.
Maine — Area - Total: (86,542 km2) or only 21 million acres

California: Welfare Capital of the U.S. (Updated) More evidence of California's continuing downhill slide can be found in the state's pathetic welfare statistics: 1. The percentage of residents on welfare in the Golden State is now more than triple that of the rest of the U.S. If it reflected the rest of the country, California would have 800,000 fewer people receiving welfare. 2. While caseloads in the rest of the U.S. have dropped over 30% in the past five years, California’s has gone up about 6%. 3. As a result, though it has only about 12% of the total U.S. population, California’s share of the welfare caseload has risen from 22% in 2002 to over 30%. 4. There are more welfare recipients per family in California, and that number has crept upward in the past couple of years, perhaps indicating that California welfare mothers are bearing more children that those in the rest of the U.S. Source. HT: Al Fin. What isn't mentioned in the article (and I don't even need to say "of course") is massive immigration. According to StateMaster, the foreign-born population of California is 26.8% of the total, far and away the highest in the nation. (New York is a distant second, at 21%.) And according to the U.S. Census, nearly half of California's foreign-born were natives of Mexico as of 2006. In strictly economic terms, agricultural labor, low educational levels, and higher crime rates mean that they aren't doing too many Silicon valley startups. Want another reason for California's sky-high welfare spending? Try this:Study Shows 25 Percent Of L.A.'s Welfare Goes To Illegal Aliens: According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County ’s welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens, at a cost of $36 million a month -- for a projected annual cost of $432 million. “The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year – not including the millions of dollars for education,” said Antonovich. “With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $432 million in welfare allocations, illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers.” Illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on all of California. Update: The city of Needles, California, wants to secede from the state: NEEDLES, CALIF. -- Depending on their mood and whom you talk to, people in this parched railroad town clinging to the eastern edge of California call it the poor stepchild, the redheaded stepchild, the ugly stepchild of San Bernardino County. They grouse about not getting their roads paved, about being 220 miles from the county seat, about being a dumping ground for parolees and sex offenders -- all the while gazing enviously across the Colorado River at boomtowns in Arizona and Nevada. "The building codes are stricter here, the taxes are higher," said Patricia Scott, a nurse. "I cross into Arizona and it's growing by leaps and bounds. We are the only community in the tri-state area that hasn't grown, and it's probably because we are in California." Kohl's, Target and Sam's Club stand like beacons on the not-so-distant shore. Gas is almost a dollar a gallon cheaper across the river. Casinos beckon. Cities mushroom. And Needles slowly fades away. "Have you been downtown?" asked City Councilman Richard Pletcher. "It's like little Hiroshima. It's HiroNeedles." Apparently the town fathers of Needles are dead serious about this, although it would take an act of Congress to approve it.

probably more than the state of Maine for size. There's alot of asphalt and concrete. WOW, probably the size of several states put together, when places like Texas has 5-6 (high)over pass highways too. Interesting question though.